Saturday, June 30, 2018

I am pleased to announce that that three Other Side Publication books have been added to the Reuniting Families Charity bundle to raise money for RAICES to help to get families reunited that were separated at the border.

Copies of Basic Fantasy as the core rules. I think it one of the better interpretations of the OSR rules and a nice sweet spot between Basic and Advanced D&D. Plus it is also the one that is most compatible with my own Witch book. I know there are a lot of great rule sets; OSRIC, S&W, LL...but enough people have also asked to participate or do something similar I figured those rules would be represented.

I am also including copies of The Witch by yours truly. This is a Witches in Fiction crafting blog challenge so this is what makes it "Witch".

At the moment I still need to get some bags to put both books in and get some dice. I want to include some character sheets, a pre-gen witch character (because I can). I will include a letter thanking them for their service and some links to my blog and some others, likely +Erik Tenkar's since that is a good place to start anyway.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Recently Ernie Gygax lost a number of personal items due to a fire in his home.

To make matters worse Ernie was laid up with CHF.

While insurance can replace some items, others were irreplaceable and frankly the shock of loss is a lot.

To help out the gaming community has offered something, this time a system neutral adventure "Fighting Fire".

The idea is simple, a third of the money goes to helping out Ernie.

The adventure itself is 32 pages (minus cover and title pages) with some NPCs. It is edition agnostic (neutral in their words). While they could have used something simple like Swords & Wizardry to give it some crunch, there isn't anything here an experienced gamer could run in about hour of prep time. In fact while typing this I have gone from wanting to run this at as an "Old-school" adventure with something like Basic D&D to maybe running it under 3rd ed. instead.

The adventure is a simple, if tongue in cheek, one. Defeat the evil fire wizard.

There is a lot of self-referential material here. So knowing a little bit about the gaming industry and some of the people involved over the years will help you see some of the inside jokes. But if not the adventure does not suffer for it.

It is described as a fairly simple adventure and it doesn't disappoint on the that regard. Easily dropped into any game and any campaign.

A lot of the art and maps come from various sources. I personally think it is kind of cool. Everyone contributed something to this.

While I can be accused (and rightly so) of waxing too nostalgic at times, I like the idea of the town of Gamington. I also like the idea of adding it to my own world as a place where old adventurers go to retire. They bring their treasure hoards and retire in style.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

I have long been of the frame of mind that gamers, in general, are some of best people when it comes to helping others. Is it because our hobby is one of pure social interaction? Is it because we learn the value of helping each other out in the game very early one? Not sure why, I can only say I have seen it work.

One only needs to look no further than the fundraisers at DriveThruRPG for various disasters or even the Bad Myrmidon fundraiser. I have raised a little money myself for various charities.

So I wanted to let you know about another one that I think is worthy and not really getting the attention it deserves.

Randall over at RetroRoleplaying is raising some money to help treat his wife's cancer.
He is asking for donations, but he is giving away an absolute trove of treasures from the early days of gaming. It's insane the stuff he is parting with, but I would do the exact same thing.

So please. Go to his site. Donate what you can. It's Christmas after all.
How about this. Instead of that large coffee you get before work today or while doing your last minute Christmas shopping, you donate $5 to Randall's wife. Make her life a little better, and hopefully a little longer. Not trying to sound overly maudlin here, but this community has given so much for lesser reasons (myself included and especially) that maybe this also something we should do.

If everyone that reads this blog here, via Facebook or even Twitter gave something, well that would be great.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

I am getting ready to go see my in-laws.
So no White Dwarf Wednesday today.

But you can do something. DriveThru has another bundle up to help the victims of the terrible storms we had over the last few weeks.
The third bundle is up and among other things you can get a copy of The Witch. You pay 20 bucks, the money goes to charity and you get a bunch of great products donated from people like me.

That's over $450 in gaming material! And all the money goes to helping out Fat Goblin co-owner and veteran industry professional, Rick Hershey and his family! Learn more about the charity from him:

A New Hope

My name is Rick Hershey. I've worked in the game industry for over 12 years now, doing illustration, graphic design, cartography, writing, game design, publishing, and much more. I love this industry, I love making games, and I love the people I've worked with over the years.

I have an amazing wife, Tristan Hershey, and four wonderful children (Mya, Marilyn, Madilyn, and Ricky). Shortly after my wife and I were married, she was diagnosed with Crohn's Disease and all our hopes, dreams, and plans were altered. For the last six years we've struggled to fight her disease (which also has given her constant kidney stones, rhumatoid arthritus, anemia, and a mini-stroke) while raising our children and trying to better our lives. I support our family on freelancing and publishing as I need to be home daily in case she is
sick.

The NEW HOPE BUNDLE is a means for my family to get the start to prosper we would o! f had without her disease. It's a means to overcome the debt from her illness and to start a new life with a chance to succeed.

What We Need & What You Get
When you purchase the NEW HOPE BUNDLE you get tons of pdf books from your favorite publishers, including the bulk of Fat Goblin Games products. That is hundreds of dollars of gaming goodness for a small price.
The money we earn goes directly to the Hershey family and will allow us to pay off bills, move to a better residence, and help eleviate the burden this disease has caused.

In addition, a portion of the money raised will go to establishing a non-profit group to help aid other game designers, writers, artists, and members of the game industry in their times of need.

The Impact
Working in the gaming industry doesn't make most of us rich. I work hard to provide for my family as well as producing fun content for my own products and those of my clients. By purchasing the NEW HOPE BUNDLE you will remove an immense amount of stress from my family and allow us to worry about important things such as my wife's ongoing health and our children's happiness.

Other Ways You Can Help
There are many ways you can help, if you get the bundle or not. Please take a moment and share the link to this bundle on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media. There are buttons at the top to make this even easier. Post in groups, on forums, and tell your friends. Make a big deal about this bundle and the value of these products and how everyone can help a family of the gaming industry.

If you are publisher and want to contribute to the bundle, that is great as well, and will be very m! uch appreciated. Contact me and I'll give you the info to add your own products to the NEW HOPE BUNDLE.

This one of my favorite charities along with Doctors Without Borders and The Trevor Project.

I like donating through DriveThru because it is easy and it sends the message the gamers care.

I know you had that $5 set aside for new book or something like that. Let's be honest, the economy sucks, you might need that 5 for parking or food or rent. But right now I have more than the people of Moore, OK do so I gave what I could.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

There is new a charity set up at DriveThruRPG. They do this every so often, RPG publishers bundle some items together and you get them at a reduced price and the money goes to the charity. It is really a win all the way around. You get a bunch of new PDFs, the charity gets money and the publishers and DTRPG get the benefit of the good karma. I know I have bought things from publishers because of their past involvement in these.

But this one just leaves me speechless.

For $15 you get a lot of really good PDFs. But more importantly The Wayne Foundation gets $15 to stop child sex trafficking. That's right. Children being sold as sex slaves. And you get to stop it.

Frankly I would have given them the money and not cared what was in the bundle. This is so beyond my experience and thought process that my first reaction is that this can't be true. But I am old enough and bitter enough at humanity to know it is true.

Monday, August 8, 2011

I want to interrupt my Gen Con posting for something a little more charitable.

RPG Now / DriveThruRPG are hosting another charity even to help Operation Backpack.
Operation Backpack provides school supplies for needy children.
Getting a quality education cannot be understated. But one thing that we shouldn't forget is how much kids actually need in way of school supplies. Paper, pencils, rulers, calculators. It all adds up really fast.

I am very happy that DriveThruRPG / RPGNow are participating in this, and I am very happy I can let you know about it.